JLA Generations
by CharlesChliboyko
Summary: The Justice League is dead. The Legion of Doom has taken over the Earth. 15 years later, the Sons and Daughters of The Justice League have to retake the earth.
1. Chapter I

**I.**

The sun woke me up almost a full hour before my alarm would. I wasn't too disappointed, it's not like I could sleep anyway. It's colder in my room than usual, and as I swing my feet off the edge of my bed onto the hard metal floor of my quarters I catch the edge of the sun peeking over the side of the earth. In these chilly, metallic barracks the sun still manages to shine a warm and inviting glow. I take a minute or two to soak it in, closing my eyes and breathing in through my nose. Today's gonna be a long day.

I have a quick military shower, dry off, and throw on a pair of athletic shorts and a long sleeve workout shirt. Waynewear, of course. The white "W" on the high collar of the shirt bounces up and down as I do a quick jog around the Ladies' quarters. I haven't jogged in what seems like forever and who knows when I'll get a chance to have some time to myself next, the next couple days are going to be crazy with a capital "C". it's a quick lap past all the other girls' rooms and I decide that I don't want to wake any of them before their alarms go off at 8 (Dick is letting us sleep in a full hour earlier than usual today because of this _momentous_ occasion.) there aren't that many rooms in the girls wing so it takes me a grand total of 3 minutes to reach the common area, without using my powers. Just before the common room window there's a large portrait window. I linger on the window, and look down on what used to be Europe. It looks the same as it does in all the history books, although maybe a little greyer than usual.

A couple minutes later I've slap slap slapped my way over to the gym area in all my barefooted glory. Complete with every work out machine you can imagine, as well as a basketball court encased in glass in one side, this training area is where we spent so many hours and hours competing, training, and also just fooling around. I remember when one time, the alpha team was playing basketball and Jon elbowed Jason right in the face, and the two of them started wrestling right there in the middle of the court! The rest of us couldn't stop laughing.

I catch myself smiling in a nearby mirror and turn away from it. Those memories are nice and all, but we're not kids anymore. We're warriors. Born and raised to defend the planet at any cost.

I continue my jog. I decide that maybe the boy's quarters might be a more interesting run. It turns out the only thing more interesting about it is the amount of snoring you can hear coming from Rob's cabin. The dumbass was probably up until 2 again playing dumb videogames or something. If he kept Alfie or anyone else up like he usually does I'm gonna personally kick his ass during our inevitable sparring session today. All the names on the small whiteboards on every cabin's door bring up so many memories, so many good times. I'm not sure I'm ready for all this to change.

I walk through the botanical gardens, one of my favourite parts of our home. There are seven main "pods", or farms as we like to call them. There's seven in total because there's one for each continent, as well as about an acre of pure farming space. The gardens are one of the biggest areas on the ship, so it takes me about half an hour to run around the whole thing. Part way through I stop to take a drink from a water fountain that's right next to this big, gnarly oak tree standing tall and proud in the North American Pod. Once, again, memories come flooding back.

I remember Jason and I, sitting under this very oak about 3 years ago watching a meteor shower go by. A couple of the others came with us. Li, Rex, and Helena came for a bit but they didn't stay for long, and the twins came for a couple of minutes but went to go play with Helena. That left just me and him. The smell of the trees in the artificial atmosphere, the meteors shooting across the vastness of space thousands and thousands of miles away, his hand on mine…

The thought is almost enough to make me tear up. Almost. I shrug off the bittersweet memory and continued my barefooted jog around the gardens. Just as I'm passing the pod for Asia, I notice Li doing yoga. She notices me without even looking up, a skill learned after years of martial arts training I suppose.

"Morning Cap." She says, not even moving from her downward dog position. "Couldn't sleep either?"

"Nah, I got too much on my mind I guess." I turn my attention to the sun rising over the horizon on the planet below and take another moment to myself, just to breathe it in. "it's gonna be a long day."

"That it is" Li replies, perfectly shifting from downward dog into a crossed legged seat on the blanket she brought with her. I recognize it as the one her mother, Tatsu, made for her when she was just a baby. It's also the same one she sat on for that meteor shower all those years ago.

"Hey Roxy, I know you have a lot on your mind, but if you want to you could join me for some tea and we could just chill for a bit before the others are up?" she looks up at me and smiles, offering me a small cup of green tea. "You know, there aren't a lot of girls our age anymore. I've always considered you like a sister to me." The one brown eye that is visible underneath her dark-brown-almost black hair starts to glisten. She's always been sappy and I've always found it adorable in times like these.

"You're a sister to me too LI. You're family. But I think I'm just gonna finish my jog before anyone else wakes up" I flash her a smile and she flashes one back.

"More for me then. I'll see you at lecture today." You can tell there's a hint of disappointment in her voice but I give her a quick smile again and I continue my jog.

There aren't many jog worthy places left, and I should probably be at lecture a couple minutes early. Dick always says the team leader should be the first one there. I hit up the pools but that's a mistake, it just brings up more bad memories that I can't afford to feel; not today. I go past the armory, the docking bay, the senior's quarters, and the med bay. Like usual, when I peak my head in I see Dick fast asleep at the foot of the old butler's bed. His breathing almost in sync with the beep-beep-beep of the old man's heart monitor.

I decide to take the last legs of my jog through the hall of heroes. It's one of my least favourite places to be in the whole station, but it's also necessary. I slow it down to a walk so I can see all of the past heroes before me. Row upon row of holograms look stoically dead ahead, almost into space. There are more than one hundred, and all of their names I have memorized off by heart. There are some that I hardly know, some I met when I was younger, and others I've known all my life. There's two heroes that I really need to see, however.

I know exactly where my father's memorial is. I make my way to it with an almost graceful approach. When I get there, I decide that a little use of my powers isn't going to hurt. I feel a sinking feeling in my stomach, something I've gotten used to over the years, and I float up so that I'm eye to eye with the 10-foot-tall hologram of my father. He's handsome, like always, and wearing his pilot's formal wear. Army green, with a formal pilot's hat under his left arm. His right arm is in a salute which comes to just over his blue eyes, with crow's feet around both of them from laughing so much. He was an amazing pilot, a great man, an amazing father, and I'm proud to call myself his daughter.

My mother was one of the founding members, and therefore instead has a colossal statue at the far end of the room with the other 6 founding members. My uncle Clark stands first and foremost, broad chested with a massive S on the front of his suit. My uncle Bruce, Helena's grouchy dad, stands to his right, in between him and grace's dad Barry. Jason's dad stands on his left, trident in hand. Far to my Uncle Clark's left side, my Uncles J'onn and Hal stand equally heroically as the rest.

Directly to Superman's left stands princess Diana of Themyscira, known to the world as Wonder Woman.

I knew her simply as "Mom".

 **II.**

My civilian name is Alfred Thomas Drake. My Field name is Redwing.

I am a master martial artist, proficient in 6 different forms of martial combat, I speak 4 different languages, I have an IQ of 178 which is 50 points north of genius, my weapon of choice is a metal bo staff forged by my own two hands from 6 different minerals and alloys, and I also carry an assortment of other weapons and self-defence items on me at all times.

And Nightwing refuses to let me go back to the ground with Alpha team.

It's an outrage! I've been trained my entire life to lead this team and yet Nightwing has no idea what he is talking about.

I can feel the rage building up in my chest and spreading down to my hands, which are balled into fists. Calm down Alfie, you don't want mom seeing you like this.

I gather my thoughts and walk to my washroom and turn on the light. My alarm won't go off for another 20 minutes. That means I have 20 minutes to calm the hell down.

My father was Tim Drake. A.K.A. Red Robin, or Robin III. He was a full-fledged member of the justice league before zero hour. I'm often told by the elders that I resemble him strongly. I have blue eyes, but they're not super blue. I'm shorter than I should be for my age, 16, and my hair would probably be the same color as my father's if I didn't shave it off two months ago.

I'm often told that I also inherited skills from my parents. For instance, my mother is Barbara Gordon; A.K.A Batgirl, Oracle, and I'm sure there's a couple other names my sister and I don't know about. She is a whiz with computers, and that's why my friends often times say I get along with computers better than I do with people. They're not wrong.

I tidy myself up, have a quick shower in cold water and get dressed in my uniform for the day: Waynewear training pants and a t shirt with a crew collar. Most Waynewear comes in all black, or if you want to spice up your life you can also get most of the gear in dark grey. My pants and shirt are a mix of both, accented with red wings on my shoulders and knees. My own design of course.

I get on my hands and knees and reach under my bed, groping around for the wooden box that holds my bo staff. Until I find it. Empty. Shit.

The only people that have access to my room are my sister Alex and Helena, my God sister. They'd both be immature enough to steal my most prized possession on such a monumentous day but I won't let it get to me. I'm already too rattled from Dick being a dick as it is.

I don't have to go far though, as soon as I open my door to leave my room Alex, my twin sister, leans against the wall opposite me with my staff in hand and a wide, Cheshire-cat-esque grin on her face.

"Alex come on, today isn't the day for this."

"You're no fun anymore Alfie!" She pouted, and lobbed the staff underhand to me. "Where's my twin bro that used to build pillowforts with me and call them the robin cave and make fun of Jason and Roxy with me?"

"I guess he grew up." I press a small button on the side of the staff and it compacts so that it's roughly a foot long, and shines like polished steel in the sunlight of the Watchtower. I start walking towards lecture hall A and Alex follows.

"Should we go wake up Leo? Or Helena?" Alex is in her training gear too, although hers is accented with a deep midnight blue as opposed to my red. She also has her twin batons crossed in an X behind her back, like a ninja.

"Nah. Hel is a Wayne, she never sleeps more than 6 hours and frankly I would be surprised if she wasn't awake already and trying to spar with someone!" Maybe I am still fun after all, I think with admittedly a bit of a smile.

"What about Leo? I mean other than me he's your best friend, and you're like his only friend other than Dawn!" She gives me an elbow.

"Nah, Leo deserves to sleep in. I mean, alpha and beta in the same place? You know how that's going to end." I have to admit I'm worried. I mean, the rest of us are all kids of full league members. Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman. Hell even our father and oracle were/are leaguers! Leo's a bit different though. His folks weren't the most popular people around these parts.

We turn a corner and we're in a little couched in area. A "Chill zone" as some of the younger leaguers used to call it. It's pretty much just a coffee table and an L-shaped couch with board games underneath to play. But it's just one of the little things the Watchtower does to make us feel at home.

"Remember when you beat Jason at cards and he almost impaled you?" Alex asks me, her brown hair is swirled around her face like a maniac. She may be my twin, but we are nothing alike.

"Good times." I make the executive decision to keep moving. I walk about another 10 feet before someone bumps into me coming out of the med bay.

"Alfie, Alex what are you-" Dick Grayson, A.K.A. Nightwing, yawns halfway through his sentence like he usually does in the mornings. "What are you guys doing up so early? Don't you have a couple more hours to sleep in?"

"It's almost 8 Dick. We're about 5 minutes early." I say, purposely putting a moody edge on my voice. He should know I'm upset because he should know taking me out of the field is a mistake.

"Oh shit, I better get changed then." He yawns again, and then starts a half-walk half-jog towards the men's living quarters. He fell asleep at the foot of Alfred's bed again. Like he has since Alfred got sick.

"Poor Dick. Alfred was like a grandfather to him." My sister, always the humble.

When we get to Lecture Hall A, there is already a surprising number of seats filled. Athena Roxanne Trevor-Prince, A.K.A Fury, and Li Yamashiro, A.K.A. Oni are sitting in two chairs side by side near the front of the room, talking about something in hushed tones. Jon and Kat (A.K.A Superboy and Supergirl respectively) are closer to the door, and us, at the back of the room. He has a cup of black coffee in one hand and his other arm is around his little sister, who is snoring into his shoulder. Both of them are wearing training gear with large S's emblazoned on the fronts of them. Jimmy Olson, one of our teachers, is at the front of the room writing something on the whiteboard that sits on the wall there. The room has seats in an 8x8 grid, with a teacher's desk at the front. It's slanted like a college lecture all, so that ideally all 64 members of a class could see.

Roxy turns our way, sees me and smiles and waves me over. I smile back and walk over to her with Alex in tow.

"Hey Alfie, hey Alex. You guys couldn't sleep?" She asks. Her dyed blond hair is pulled back in a harsh ponytail, and the bright blue eyes she inherited from her father Steve Trevor seem to glisten despite the obvious lack of sleep. She, like Jon, has a cup of coffee in one hand. Li is drinking what looks like green tea. "Still bummed about not being OK'd for the mission?"

I shift uneasily. Roxy is so pretty and really the only girl I feel super comfortable around other than Alex is Helena, who is nowhere to be seen. "Yeah, I guess."

"It's no biggie man." She says, and shoots a reassuring smile my way, "in a couple years you'll be leading alpha team!"

The reason there are 2 different groups made sense when we were younger, when we were children, but it's obsolete now. Alpha's members are between 17-19 years old, whereas beta has members between the ages of 14-16, and those who aren't deemed ready for combat. The thing is, Athena and I had a top secret meeting with Nightwing, Oracle, and a couple of the other civilians that live here and maintain the Watchtower. Only the two of us were invited because we are each a team leader. She leads Alpha, I lead Beta. We know something the other's don't. We know where we're going.

After a couple minutes of talking to just Athena and Li the others drift in, either in groups or one at a time. Helena and Jason walk in, having a laugh about some hilarious but most likely stupid inside joke. Rex walks in a few steps behind, wearing his dark grey and forest green training gear. Even from this distance, his piercing green eyes are almost enough to distract from the giant, feathery wings coming out the back of his shirt or dangerous looking morning star hanging at his belt.

Pretty much everyone on the team is pretty tight. Vikki walks in, seemingly fully charged from a goodnight's sleep. And I mean that literally, because she is half robot. Her one red cybernetic eye scans the room, and fixates on the coffee machine at the front left of it, which she dismisses with a sigh. Behind her, Leo and Dawn walk in side by side as usual, and his naturally cold facial expression seems to thaw a bit when he sees me. He waves, I wave him over.

"Thank God you guys are here already. I don't know what I would do if I had to sit through even like 2 minutes of dick measuring contests from the junior justice league." The three of us laugh, and he cracks a smile. Leo's my best friend for a number of reasons, chief among them is that I'm calculating and he is cold, literally. He is a cryomancer, we're the perfect team. He's also one of the only guys my age in the watchtower, save maybe a couple of civvies. But he's a chill guy. And Dawn is like his adopted big sister, and the two of them go everywhere together. It's weird, her dad was Barry Allen, A.K.A The Flash, and his dad was a petty thief with a cheap gimmick. Who would have known?

While I get caught up with Leo and Dawn and we talk about some stupid stuff, the rest of the team files into the room. . Jenny Jones, green skin and all just like her father J'onn, A.K.A the Manhunter from Mars, phases through the wall three feet to the left of the door. Robert Queen II, A.K.A. Ballista, walks in in his all black training gear, bow and quiver slung casually over his shoulder. He sits down in a seat at the farthest possible seat from the front and immediately nods off. Definitely not the biggest show the second-last member of Alpha team could have put on walking in. William Logan, A.K.A Nightmare, is the final. He seems to be totally unaware of the fact that he walks into the room in the form of a giant, black, demonic wolf. Non-shalontly, he curls up in a ball just beside the door and nods off again.

Anissa Pierce, A.K.A. Thunder, and Melanie Kord A.K.A Blue Beetle IV walk in and take seats to the left of Alex in our row. The last three to walk in are the final three members of beta team: Donnie Markov, A.K.A Quake, Zatanno, and Teddy Grant Jr. A.K.A Wildcat (Who, unlike his father, actually had a number of low level Metahuman abilities). They all take their seats.

After a few minutes of complaining about being up early, excited chatter about the big news, and some famous Watchtower gossip, Nightwing walks in. As soon as he does, the whole room falls silent. Each clique or loner has their own seat. Jason, Jon, Jenny, Helena and Rob sit together, with Jon still holding his arm around his younger sister Kat (who happens to be the youngest of all of us, at 14 years of age.) Will has his own seat in the far corner of the room, mainly because no one wants to go near him. All of Beta except for the little Kryptonian girl sit together in the middle of the lecture hall, all nine of us in our coffee fueled glory (Thank God they have a massive number of coffee trees in the gardens.) Athena, Li, Vikki, and Rex sit front and centre, ready for the mission briefing.

Nightwing walks up to the front of the room and pauses. Batman always loved theatrics and I guess it makes sense that his protégé's do too. And then all at once he lets loose the biggest announcement of all of our young lives.

"4 days from now, we will send a drop ship down with Alpha Team fully prepared for a mission. Today's the day you guys. Today is the day we start our campaign to retake the Earth."


	2. Chapter II

**Athena II.**

The room pretty much erupted, as one would expect. Bursts of joy and outrage filled the lecture hall. Questions, comments, and concerns fly from the mouths of my peers, all targeted at NIghtwing who stands tall at the front of the lecture hall, not even flinching. The guy might be a mess emotionally, (Hell, we all are), but he could be pretty bad ass when the time called for it.

Jason and Jon are on their feet and out of their seats swearing and cursing at Dick for not telling us sooner. I myself heard this news weeks in advance, but refrained from telling anyone due solely to the fact that I knew it would cause an uproar like this. I look back over my left shoulder at Alfie, who sits cross armed with his feet up completely un-phased. I guess all of the bat brats are pretty tough after all. Even Blackbird, his twin sister Alex, had no idea what was going on. Although beta remains quieter as a whole, the lecture hall is still in an uproar.

"Barbara and I have been analyzing patterns on the planet's surface for a number of months now. With a number of the civilian scientist's and doctor's input, we have judged that it is safe to start retaking the planet." Nightwing gestures with his hand, the only hand he has, making kind of a "come on" gesture. "Any questions?"

Another uproar. It's been so long since all 20 kids have been in the same room at the same time for a meeting like this. Enough is enough though, time to show some spine on my part.

"You all need to shut the hell up before I come shut you up myself!" I stand up, saying in my best commanding voice. It quiets down a bit. I've earned the respect of all of these people in the last couple years, as has Nightwing. The only difference being is that I'm one of them. I'm the oldest, Rex, Rob and I are both 19 and my birthday is two months earlier than theirs, so I am pretty much the den mother. Aflie looks up at me, coyly, and gives me a thumbs up from one leader to another.

"Thanks, Fury." Nightwing clears his throat. "I guess I know why you chose that as your field name. Anyways, just a quick refresher course on the last 15 years in history so that everyone here remembers." He motions for Jimmy, who acted as one of the teachers on the Watchtower for the last 15 years, to come up to the front.

Jimmy Olson was scrawny with a mop of red hair on the top of his head. He was quite possible one of the least heroic looking men I've ever met. He starts off his briefing with a voice crack.

"For those of you who don't remember, 15 years ago an organization of super villains calling themselves 'The Legion of Doom' met with an alien race known as 'Serenity' and together, they systematically destroyed every member of the Justice League." The room falls silent. To my right, Rex takes a rosary out of his pocket and starts to do a quiet prayer under his breath. His father was John Stewart, and that rosary belonged to his Grandmother.

"A large contingent of Justice League forces were called into orbit, where they were ambushed by Serenity. That contingent contained Superman, Martian Manhunter, both Green Lanterns, Captain Marvel, and Doctor Fate. Using some form of atom scrambling beam, they were able to eliminate almost 10 percent of the league in one fell swoop."

Jimmy continues on for a couple minutes, recapping where all of the Justice League members either died or went missing or were captured. Whenever a parent of one of us is mentioned, you can hear a child react farther back in the row. Kat is the youngest of us, and her father was one of the first to be killed. When Jimmy starts talking about my mother, I almost lose it.

"With almost 75% of the Justice League defeated, Wonder Woman led a small Strike Team to where she believed the Legion of Doom Headquarters were in the middle of the Arctic Ocean. There, her and her team were ambushed by Circe and a small group of rogue amazons. Plastic Man, The Atom, Black Canary, Beast Boy, and finally Diana herself were all struck down in battle. After she was defeated, all of the remaining Justice League members surrendered to the Legion of Doom."

"Except Batman, right?" The voice is that of Helena Wayne, Batman's Daughter. "Batman was never reported KIA and he wasn't one of the leaguers that surrendered after Roxy's mom died. Sorry Rox."

"It's fine." It really wasn't fine. Rex notices me fighting back a couple of tears and puts his hand on my knee, and I put mine on top of his and squeeze. He's always been the kind of strong-silent type, which is one of the reasons he's one of my best friends.

Nightwing stands up from his chair in the corner of the room. "That's right, Helena. Your father was the only unaccounted for member of the JLA. We don't know what happened to him."

"So he could still be alive?"

"No." Victoria Stone sits two seats to my left, and speaks for the first time all morning. "We've done the calculations. I've done some of them myself. The league is gone, one way or the other."

"Screw you Vikki, your dad was a robot and you're just a bitch." Says Jason, at Helena's right side.

"Everybody ENOUGH." Barbara Gordon is just attentive enough to say those two words before she goes back to fiddling around on her tablet. "Helena, Vikki, you guys can have your catfight later. Now is _not_ the time." Both girls let out an audible pout, and Jimmy continues with his briefing.

"That was 15 years ago. A year later, after Serenity was promised the earth in exchange for wiping out the justice league, the legion launched a pre-emptive strike against them using nuclear warheads from a number of countries around the world. The aliens were decimated and the bad guys won without any consequences."

"Except now we're gonnna come take the earth back from them and throw their asses down the Marianas Trench!" Jason's voice rings out from the back of the room. A couple of the guys and girls cheer.

"Well, not quite yet. You see, we have some new Intel which will give us a hint about how to go about taking the planet back. And, I think that's where Dick comes back in."

"Thanks Jimmy." Nightwing takes his spot back up at the front of the lecture hall with a laser pointer in hand. "As Jim said, we have some new information from the ground."

A 3D Holographic map of the planet pops up from each of our desks. Instead of where the continents used to be, there are now different colors. Europe is Yellow, North America is Green, except for a small portion of the east coast which is an off shade of lavender. South America is red, etc. We're free to manipulate the hologram at will until Nightwing starts talking again.

"Each color coded area of the map corresponds with a different member of the Legion of Doom. Whole continents are now ruled by brutal, super-powered dictators. Now from what we understand, these are the corresponding villains."

A small legend appears next to the hologram of the planet. Each color, like Dick said, has the name of a supervillain next to it. Africa, with the exception of the northeastern portion, is colored grey, which corresponds with Gorilla Grodd and Black Adam. South America is Red, which represents Circe. I hope I'm the one that gets to take that bitch down.

The rest is fairly straightforward. A dark shade of green encompasses most of North and Central America. Lex Luthor's territory. That small, eastern portion that is a shade of Lavender represents The Joker. Europe is a disgusting shade of yellow, corresponding with Eobard Thawne A.K.A. Reverse Flash. Asia is split into 3 different territories, under the rule of Ras Al Ghul, Vandal Savage, and Queen Bee respectively. Australia and Indonesia are under the rule of Dr. T.O. Morrow and his bodyguard Amazo the Amazing Android. And Killler Frost, Leo's mother, was gifted all of Antarctica for her 'work'.

"What about Black Manta? That bastard was one of my father's greatest enemies!" Jason seems outraged at the fact that his own personal vessel of vengeance isn't on the list.

"We have it on good authority that Manta is the current ruler of Atlantis." States Nightwing, matter-of-factly.

"Son of a Bitch!" Jason slams his fist down on the desk, smashing it and the hologram projector into pieces, and walks out the door with Helena not far behind. The would-be King of Atlantis is moodier than usual.

"Someone can fill them in later." Says Jon-El, who was sitting next to him. A couple kids chuckle.

"Continuing on, our first assignment is strictly Alpha Team Deployment. We've sent pods to the surface and we have discovered that all of the Joker Gas in North America released on Zero Day has evaporated. The air is safe to breathe you guys." Nightwing seems excited at the proposition of breathable air, and no one blames him. "Athena, you and your team will take a dropship and fly into the Louisiana Bayou, where you will search the remains of Belle Reve Penitentiary." Belle Reve was a super-prison created by the American government to house super-criminals. It was one of the correctional facilities that was raided during the Zero Day attacks.

"A large number of the Legion of Doom are metahumans, therefore if we have a way of neutralizing their power we can better understand how to defeat them. Belle Reve implemented collars that could actually suppress specific metahuman or magical abilities. For instance, if you put one of those on the Flash, no more super speed."

A couple of my teammates nod to show understanding. A couple of the boys in beta pound fists.

"Your mission is to drop in two miles south of Belle Reve, and search the facility for any remaining and or functioning collars. Do you accept this mission?" Dick is looking right at me, into my eyes. He's trying to egg me on.

"You bet your skinny ass I do, Nightwing."

 **Alfred II.**

The next couple days passed in what felt like a blink of an eye, and I have more than one friend who can break the sound barrier, so I know what fast feels like. The first day was a shit show. Alpha team got their assignments, while the rest of beta and I stick around like gum on a shoe. While they're doing last minute training drills in combat and survival, my team and I are looking at the drop ship and figuring out how the monitoring software looks. It's unfair. I deserve to be on the ground.

That first night, everyone was in a great mood except for me. They were so pumped to be going to the ground soon that they didn't even think that soon might not mean as soon as we think. Alpha gets to go on a _mission._ I don't think I've ever been this jealous before.

I walked into the port loft, an area that is purely recreational for use of both Alpha and Bravo teams as well as the 106 other people, civilians, that work on the Watchtower as engineers, farmers, teachers, doctors, and security. It has leather couches, bean bag chairs, a Jacuzzi, and a sound system. Pretty much heaven for teenagers. Jason and Jon are playing at the pool table, using restraint as to not shoot the pool cue right through a pool ball, or snap either of them in half. Rex is playing Foosball with Athena, but I can't help but notice her looking longingly in the direction of the pool table. Maybe she wants to play a round, or maybe she wants to hop on Jason like she used to. Who knows?

Victoria is in front of one of the massive flat screen tv's that line the wall, playing some sort of first person shooter where she is annihilating wave upon wave of little green aliens with an assault rifle. She and Zatanno are playing split screen. Robert is asleep on the next couch over from them, with a copy of _Hustler_ over his face as he snores audibly enough for everyone to hear him. Jenny and Helena are in the hot tub in a raised area in the corner of the loft, hanging out with what looks like one of the Jordan boys. Hal Jordan's sons never inherited any powers because other than the power ring, their father was never a meta. They did inherit his shockingly green eyes, as did Rex. Li and William are nowhere to be found.

"Team bonding." I say to myself. "Maybe we should try that sometime."

The next two days and nights follow suit. The "Varsity Team" has 8 hours of training a day, in combat and survival, and we are allowed to either join, spectate, or do our own thing. I choose to spectate on day one, and on day two I decide that doing my research on the Legion of Doom might be a good idea. I find nothing we didn't already know.

However, after training on the day before the drop, things get really cool.

" _Alpha Team report to the training area. Redwing, report to the training area."_

I legitimately jump for joy. Already in my training gear accented with crimson, I rush to the training area as fast as my human legs will take me and I get there apparently just after everyone else. Nightwing stands at the front, his one remaining arm behind his back, and with a shit eating grin on his face says: "Who wants to make their super suit?"

A bunch of us yell in surprise and joy. This is going to be sweet. The only one seemingly uninterested is Will. His ability is to transform into a twisted, dark version of any animal he wants. So I guess he feels he doesn't need clothes in the field. Nightwing leads us down a hall and past a couple of twists and turns. I lag behind, not wanting to overstay my welcome. I guess Athena takes notice, and slows down to match pace with me.

"Alfie, how pumped are you to make your own super suit?" She asks me, with a massive grin on her face. I feel myself blush, I wish Alex was here to do the talking for me.

"Pretty gi-, I mean I'm pretty pumped I guess." Idiot.

"Do you know what you're gonna make yours like? I want mine to pay tribute to both of my parents, so I'm going to do an army green jacket with a colonel emblem on the sleeve, and I'm gonna have a belt like my mom's and-"

"I'm going to make mine like my dad's, but maybe use grey or black instead of blue." Jon-El says from the front of the line, damn his super hearing is like an eavesdroppers dream.

"Way to cut me off, Krypto!" Athena shouts back. The rest of the jog there is filled with excited chatter about finally getting our field uniforms. I don't know why I'm getting one though.

When we finally reach the room, we are on the lowest level of the combat section of the Watchtower. The door is unmarked and looks like just one of the many storage closet in the Watchtower. This is odd. We've been up here for 15 years, I thought I would have found everything by now. Nightwing puts his hand on a section of wall panel next to the door, and it makes and audible and visual queue to signify that his hand is being scanned.

" _Recognized: Nightwing. Waynewear supersuit generator activated."_ Says a robotic, female voice from an unknown speaker. The door slides open and the 12 of us step into the room behind it.

The room is dark at first, but fluorescent lights come on after we're all in and the door closes with a _woosh_ behind us. There are a number of computer screens around the room, each of them look like touch screens. And on the far side of the room, there are 6 tubes, each with a basic grey, armoured bodysuit. Similar to the earlier versions of the batsuit, or so I can imagine.

"Helena, want to start us off?" Nightwing asks, and almost immediately Huntress sits down at the closest computer on the left and starts immediately pushing buttons. Figures that Bruce Wayne's daughter would know how to use these machines off the hop. We all crowd around and see how the 3d model of one of the bodysuits is manipulated using the touch screen. Color, density, accessories. Everything you could want to put on a supersuit is there, including a logo designer.

We all get at it and the fastest of us finish in about half an hour. Jon picks a dark grey body with a red half cape and his signature "S" on the front. Jason makes his a shade of dark blue accented with orange and leaves space so the water tattoos on his body show, so they can glow when he manipulates water. He also puts a big trident on his chest and his belt is buckled with the same belt his father had. Rex's is more akin to a suit of armor, with plates allowing for more flexibility. His visor is practical, and on his chest he puts his mother's symbol: that of Hawkwoman. He also scrawls "Warhawk" across his back, like they did to athlete's jerseys back on earth. Everyone takes a turn, and after an hour and a half it's only Athena and I left, sitting side by side. Nightwing went to go check on Pennyworth, my namesake, and most likely to fall asleep again.

"So how do you feel about being in the field?" I ask her, my voice only cracking once.

"I'm excited, but nervous. They say the prison is abandoned and empty, but the place held metas. Who knows if one or two of them stuck around?" she never takes her eyes off the screen in front of her. Her supersuit looks very much like she said. It has navy pants with combat boots, a belt with her mother's logo on it, a dark red almost black armored chest piece, and a green military jacket over top. The jacket has a colonel's symbol on the left arm with the name "Trevor" underneath. "What about you? Are you upset you couldn't go?"

"Yeah I am. I wanted to be in the field but I guess I'm not ready."

"You are ready, Alf. You'll get your chance." She puts a hand on my shoulder and saves her work, the pods at the end of the room have already built a couple of suits and hers starts glowing blue, indicating that it will start manufacturing. "You're going to be leading us soon. I know it." She leaves.

When she does, she leaves me alone, with my thoughts, and with Red Robin's costume on the screen in front of me. I am ready.


End file.
